Society

Tuesday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Hillary Clinton & the Falklands

Bagehot of the Economist is beginning to have some doubts about the Obama administration: I have hesitated to read drastic slights into the sometimes awkward diplomacy between Barack Obama and Gordon Brown. But this stance on the Falklands cannot be seen any other way. It really is no way for the Americans to treat their most important military ally—as some in America doubtless appreciate. What stance? Well Hillary Clinton has been visiting Argentina and was asked about the status of the Falklands. Here’s what she had to say: And we agree [with Argentina]. We would like to see Argentina and the United Kingdom sit down and resolve the issues between them across the

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Restoring the educational gold standard

Every August we go through the same debate, are A-Levels getting easier? However harsh it may be on those who have just received their results, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that they are. There is a justified suspicion that the bureaucracy’s over-riding aim is to see a larger and larger proportion of students get A grades. So it is welcome news that Michael Gove is planning to get the government out of A-Levels. Instead universities, exam boards and other groups will determine what is tested and how. These groups will neither be interested in nor appear to be interested in artificially pumping up the numbers of pupils getting

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Fox News “Realism”

Roger Ailes redefines realism: I see myself between the Hudson River and the Sierra Madres. I do not see myself at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel or Le Cirque here in New York. Those are people who aspire to different things. They’re the chattering class. They’re the people who think Ahmadinejad wants to have a chat with us and that we haven’t been reaching out to him enough. No, actually, Ahmadinejad wants to cut our heads off and blow us up with nuclear weapons. He’s made that clear. There is something about those people that makes them think, “Oh, he’s just kidding.” No, he’s not kidding. He wants to kill us. 

Monday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Tories up by seven in new YouGov poll

The YouGov poll out tonight will ease Tory worries. It shows the Tories ahead by seven points, 39 to 32. Ten days ago, the Tories would not have been particularly happy about a seven point advantage. But seven points is much better than the two point lead they had this weekend and adds to the sense that they are moving on from their wobble.  The key thing to watch is if the Tories, who have gained two points since the last poll, continue to trend upwards. The party will certainly breathe easier once it is back above the psychologically important forty percent mark. There is also a ComRes poll out

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Honoring an Embargo

Ah, the glories of the endless contest between hacks and PR flacks. Pretty mch every journalist will enjoy this, I think. This is a very true: “I will honor the embargo for the rest of my life because I have no intention of writing about it.” [Hat-tip Media Bistro and SA and SM via Twitter. My Twitter feed is here.]

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Me, Elsewhere

Just a quick note: Andrew Sullivan is taking a breather for a few days and, as is customary, it takes several people to replace him. I happen to be one of them this week. So while there’ll still, I trust, be plenty happening here, you can also catch up with me over at the Daily Dish. Also, I’ve a piece at the Daily Beast today looking at the Tory wobble and Cameron’s speech yesterday.

Alex Massie Alex Massie

In the Country of Country

Like Norm says, you can’t never have too many articles singing the praises of country music. So hats off to Simmy Richman for his excellent piece in the Independent today. He makes many of the essential points, not least the fact that this is universal music, not merely stuff for hillbillies and cowpokes (not that there’s anything wrong with hillbillies and cowpokes): Were I ever to stop and question why this music was having such a profound effect on me, someone born so far from its origins, the answer might have lain exactly in that sense of distance – the space between what you are and who you want to

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Bullying: no-one cares

So now we know the full extent of the Prime Ministerial bullying. Did he whip, flay or pummel his staff? Did he pick on them relentlessly, or spit at them or try to force them to have sexual intercourse with him while he growled about having saved the world? Did he swear at them in a nasty manner? Nope, according to the latest revelation Gordon Brown was responsible for the following outrage: he pushed past a civil servant with his arm on the stairs while saying “get out of the way” in a rather brusque manner, once, when he was in a hurry. Doesn’t this make you worry about the

The Spectator

CoffeeHousers’ Wall, 1 March – 7 March<br />

Welcome to the latest CoffeeHousers’ Wall. For those who haven’t come across the Wall before, it’s a post we put up each Monday, on which – providing your writing isn’t libellous, crammed with swearing, or offensive to common decency – you’ll be able to say whatever you like in the comments section. There is no topic, so there’s no need to stay ‘on topic’ – which means you’ll be able to debate with each other more freely and extensively. There’s also no constraint on the length of what you write – so, in effect, you can become Coffee House bloggers. Anything’s fair game – from political stories in your local

Sunday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Cameron’s speech delivers

When you watch David Cameron speak without notes you wonder why they ever let him speak with a text. You can tell when Cameron is on form as he stops and sets himself before he delivers the bit that he hopes will be clipped for the news and he was back to doing that today. To be sure, the speech was not as good as the 2007 conference one. But it did the job which was to frame the election as a choice between Cameron and five more years of Gordon Brown. The speech was not as much about Brown as I expected it would be. But there were some

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The Tory lead is down to two points, Cameron needs to deliver a brilliant speech

The mood in the bars of Brighton is grim: the Tory lead is down to two points in the latest poll. (As UK polling Report notes, any individual poll should be treated with caution) The poll is, obviously, bad news for the Tories. But it does set the stage for David Cameron’s speech tomorrow. Cameron will deliver the speech without notes and from past experience we know that when he does that he tends to deliver a very good speech—see the 2005 and 2007 conferences for examples. If Cameron can emphasise to the country why it shouldn’t want five more years of Gordon Brown and how the Tories will change

Saturday

Melissa Kite

Noises off

At first glance they didn’t look like they were going to be trouble. A boy and a girl in their late teens, possibly early twenties. He wore glasses and looked preppy, she was demure with her hair neatly tied in a ponytail. When they began talking during the overture, I thought little of it. As they chattered and giggled their way through the opening number, I kept telling myself they were probably excited to be at the theatre and would quieten down soon enough. When they were still talking during the second number I tried not to panic. When they were getting stuck into a full-blown conversation about life as

Jeremy Clarke

End of the line

I’d booked sleeping berths to Fort William, onward tickets for the scenic passenger line to Mallaig, and a double bed in a country-house hotel. But at the last moment she said she couldn’t come. So on my birthday I woke from a drugged sleep in an upper bunk on the Caledonian sleeper and there was one less person in my romantic Scottish Highlands sleeper-compartment fantasy than planned. I climbed down the ladder, released the window shutter and looked out. We were travelling slowly across a frozen bog. In the far distance, mountains; their snowy peaks glowing orange in the weak early-morning sunlight. Between the strand of barbed wire demarcating railway

Mary Killen

Dear Mary | 27 February 2010

Q. New people have moved into our terraced street and made themselves very popular. Prior to their arrival everyone kept themselves to themselves in the typical London manner, but now there is a lot of what my husband calls ‘Coronation Street activity’ led by this very social, very community-minded couple. They are definitely a force for good, but my husband bitterly resents the threat to his privacy when one of them suddenly knocks on our front door out of the blue with something like Neighbourhood Watch news. No one other than the postman has knocked on our door (without ringing first or being invited) for 20 years until these new

Toby Young Toby Young

So I’m supposed to take this online persecution on the chin, am I?

Earlier this week I was seriously tempted to call the National Bullying Helpline. Ever since I wrote a blog for the Daily Telegraph questioning whether Alexander McQueen really was a ‘genius’, I’ve become a whipping boy on Twitter, the social networking site. The strange thing is, my chief tormentors are fellow journalists. ‘Alexander McQueen: a thundering f***ing pr*** has his say,’ tweeted Alexis Petridis, the Guardian’s chief rock critic, on the day the blog appeared. This prompted a reply from Caitlan Moran, a Times columnist: ‘Toby Young hasn’t done ANYTHING other than be a c*** since 1993.’ Janice Turner, another Times columnist, agreed: ‘I’d love my kids to go to

The Spectator

Letters | 27 February 2010

Bashing Gordon Sir: Poor, poor Gordon. Have mercy! We brutish Scots must stick together; if I had the likes of Bob Ainsworth, not to mention the simpering fraudsters of ‘Blair’s babes’, in my office every day, I would be sorely tempted to reach for the birch — if not a cricket bat. Then, of course, some closer to the headmaster might not be averse to a little S&M. But now that old protester-puncher Prescott has come out in support. Really, who needs friends like that? Alistair Horne Henley-on-Thames Time for a tea party Sir: You are right when discussing MPs’ and BBC expenses to bring in the question of local

Dot Wordsworth

Mind your language | 27 February 2010

There are still the men’s curling finals to look forward to, but I have hardly got over a strange use of language in a commentary on the men’s ski-jumping. There are still the men’s curling finals to look forward to, but I have hardly got over a strange use of language in a commentary on the men’s ski-jumping. ‘That’s a very prolific jump,’ said the excited commentator, more than once. I’m not such a stick in the mud, or snow, as to insist that the word prolific should only be used to mean ‘capable of producing offspring’. We have had childless but prolific authors since the middle of the 18th

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 27 February 2010

Mr Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, had sworn at senior aides and ‘roughly shoved aside’ an adviser and hit a car seat, according to an extract in the Observer from a forthcoming book by Mr Andrew Rawnsley. Mr Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, had sworn at senior aides and ‘roughly shoved aside’ an adviser and hit a car seat, according to an extract in the Observer from a forthcoming book by Mr Andrew Rawnsley. ‘I have never, never hit anybody in my life,’ Mr Brown said. ‘I throw the newspapers on the floor or something like that.’ The question then moved on to whether bullying went on in 10 Downing

The Spectator

Sex, lies and education

It is an odd day when Ed Balls is rebuked for pandering to the religious right. Yet that is exactly what happened this week, after the Secretary for Children, Schools and Families introduced an ‘opt-out’ clause in his new education bill which would allow religious schools to teach what they believe about sexual morality alongside the government curriculum. The Church of England, the Catholic Church, and the Muslim Council of Great Britain, grateful for any concession, have all welcomed the revised bill — even though it will still force Muslim teachers to instruct their pupils about homosexuality in a ‘non-judgmental’ way, and compel Christian schools to provide information on how

The Spectator

A bully surrounded by cowards

It is not just the revelations about Gordon Brown’s bullying behaviour towards his staff which mark him out as a failed leader; it is his hypocrisy. It is not just the revelations about Gordon Brown’s bullying behaviour towards his staff which mark him out as a failed leader; it is his hypocrisy. No government in history has committed itself so firmly to standing up for suffering employees and, as Rod Liddle points out on page 19, this noble aim has often resulted in overbearing legislation. We have had employment acts which make it an offence for a boss not to make allowance for people’s desire to pray at work, and